Not to be alarmist, but I once hear that Teflon pans should be thrown away as soon as there's any visible rip in the material--that bits of Teflon in your body can adversely affect your health.

Of course, there are those who would never cook with Teflon as a matter of principle, but I'm just mentioning what I heard once. I have no earthly idea whether it was true or not.

It was very interesting to read, by the way, from Dr. Bill's information the necessity of Teflon in small motors. Cool.